General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Title:
Quantum simulation of dark energy candidates

Abstract: Additional scalar fields from scalar-tensor, modified gravity or higher
dimensional theories beyond general relativity may account for dark energy and
the accelerating expansion of the Universe. These theories have lead to
proposed models of screening mechanisms, such as chameleon and symmetron
fields, to account for the tight experimental bounds on fifth-force searches.
Cold atom systems have been very successfully used to constrain the parameters
of these screening models, and may in future eliminate the interesting
parameter space of some models entirely. In this paper, we show how to
manipulate a Bose-Einstein condensate to simulate the effect of any screened
scalar field model coupled conformally to the metric. We give explicit
expressions for the simulation of various common models. This result may be
useful for investigating the computationally challenging evolution of particles
on a screened scalar field background, as well as for testing the metrology
scheme of an upcoming detector proposal.